We propose to continue a successful Training Program for predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the Visual Sciences. The emphasis of the Vision Training Program will be to learn and apply modern neuro-, cell and molecular biological methods to research problems in the visual sciences. All trainees will receive comprehensive research training in their preceptor's laboratory. Additionally, trainees will receive a strong foundation in visual sciences and the disciplines of modern biology through formal course work, seminars, journal clubs, three-month-long rotations in the laboratories of the faculty (for the predoctoral students) and contacts with the clinical and basic science faculty at the UCSF School of Medicine. All of the faculty members of the Training Program are established scientists who are members of the Neuroscience Graduate Program; many are also members of other basic science graduate programs as well as basic science departments. Eight of the Training Faculty is members of the Department of Ophthalmology, and six of these have neighboring laboratories in the Koret Vision Building, Eleven of the Training Faculty receive their primary research funding from the National Eye Institute. The research interests of the entire Training Faculty encompass or complement one or more areas of the visual sciences. Predoctoral trainees will be selected primarily from graduate students in the Neuroscience Program. Upon completion of their qualifying coursework, laboratory rotations and exam (~1.5 years in program) trainees will concentrate on their dissertation research. A committee of three to four faculty members and the research advisor will continuously evaluate progress of each trainees' research. Postdoctoral fellows will train primarily in the laboratory of a selected faculty member but will have a secondary mentor to monitor progress. Collaboration with the laboratories of other training faculty, or other faculty within the School of Medicine, will be strongly encouraged. Such collaborations are a strong tradition at UCSF. UCSF is particularly well-suited for this Training Program because of the strength of its research and graduate training in as well as neurosciences, molecular biology, cell biology, and molecular genetics, and because of the quality of broad-based research in the visual sciences. [unreadable] [unreadable]